losing hats and gaining fluency

Six and a half years of speaking exclusively French with Griffin really is working, and I can prove it: a week after our 12-day, three-generation family trip to France for the first time (August 2014), Griffin went back to school.  His Spanish immersion school.  His third year there.  And in half an hour at the back-to-school-meet-the-teachers event, I counted five different instances in which he answered a teacher's questions in Spanish with words in French!  He was "oui"ing all over the place!

Gwyneth, Griffin, Grammy in Paris

Since I had never observed him doing that before, I feel safe attributing it to our having spent nearly two weeks in a French immersion environment.  Hourrah!

If I had written this blog post sooner after our return from Alsace and Paris, it would have begun quite differently.  I would have bemoaned the fact that Griffin's fluency in French didn't improve in great leaps.  I would have expressed my disappointment that our trip didn't have the same effect as my fellow bilingual parent bloggers' experiences--it seems as if when they take their families to a country where the minority language is spoken, or when relatives who speak that language stay with them for a week or more, it is a revelation.  These parents (and also the mamans in French playgroup) are rapturous about how comfortable their kids get in the minority language in such a short time.

And, well, it wasn't really like that for us.  Nothing major went wrong, and Griffin did have lots of chances to interact with native speakers--but I can only think of three extended conversations he had with them, and he kept speaking in English to me otherwise, as usual.  No revelations, no magical transformations, no sudden desire to use only French with me.

Gwyneth continued to do her own thing, which is basically the opposite of whatever her parents want.

I had so hoped that our travels would recharge his French brain batteries!  But 12 days isn't enough, clearly, at least when he's still spending each day with our anglophone family in the rental car and lodgings.

But instead of dwelling on my belief that he didn't speak enough French on our trip, let me focus on what he did do!  Here are his linguistic highlights:

We participated in a tour of the Chateau Haut-Konigsbourg specifically for children, in which a man dressed as a medieval minstrel led us through the castle looking for his musical instruments which went missing after the previous evening's feast for the king.  Over an hour of listening to a stranger speak French in a strange place with cannons and towers and a fascinatingly deep well--that's a record!  (And it made an impression on Gwyneth, too; she keeps telling people about how we couldn't find the instruments in the castle.)

During our week in Alsace, we never encountered another American tourist, and the owners of our rental house spoke only French.  And as they lived right next door, we chatted with them regularly.  They even invited us over for drinks one night!  Plus, they were curious about us, and also wanted to make sure that we liked their house, so the landlady peppered me with questions every time she saw us.

(The only awkward moments came when she stuck her head through the open window as I walked out of the shower, and then when we had to admit that we didn't know how to operate the washing machine.  Oh, and when Griffin threw a basketball so hard it cracked a plastic lawn chair.  Oops.)

His other two noteworthy conversations came about because of public transportation.  On the bus, I started chatting with a grandmother accompanying her two young grandsons and called him over to join in.  One of the boys, a six-year-old just like him, told us that "Griffin" (which they pronounced "griffeen)" sounded like a girl's name.  But Griff defended himself and said that was okay, that it's a boy's name in English.  (Interestingly, he also ended up meeting a French boy named Sasha on a playground, and his reaction was shock that the boy had what he considered a girl's name!)  We ended up exchanging addresses and promising to send the French boys a postcard from Colorado.  (Wouldn't it be cool if they turn out to be penpals?!)

The people we spoke with in France seemed surprised and impressed that we're raising our children bilingually and asked us lots of questions about it, but none more so than two young workers at Charles de Gaulle airport who overheard me speaking to the kids in French with my American accent.  Ultimately we spent about ten minutes watching them barrage Griffin with questions, which he handled beautifully.  He even told them about how he's learning Spanish at school!

Then there were lots of little interactions that turned out to me more important than I realized at the time--opportunities for Griffin to read and speak French because he wanted or needed something.  For example, my husband took him out on a Sunday to look for a bakery that was open; they got completely lost and encountered bakeries that were closed for the day (or for the season).  Since Ed doesn't speak French, he was entirely dependent on our six-year-old to translate the signs and ask strangers for directions!

My children have an unfortunate habit of leaving their hats behind, and true to form, they lost one apiece on the trip.  Ed and Griffin retraced our steps in Colmar, looking for Gwyneth's errant chapeau, which meant that Griff had to do things like ask the carousel operator if he had seen it.  And when Griff's cap went missing at a museum in Paris--and he was really mad about that--he took two separate trips to the lost-and-found desk to try to track it down.

before her hat disappeared

When Griffin wanted a map of the charming village of Riquewihr, I accompanied him to the tourist office and watched proudly as he obtained two of them--one in French for us and one in English for Daddy.  He also read menus and ordered his own food in restaurants, paid attention to signs all around him (traffic signs, lists of bus stops, directional indicators in the metro), and refused to leave a bookstore until he had paged through an entire Tintin comic book.

(And it was so reassuring to have strangers compliment my own French as well as the fact that the kids are bilingual.  Maybe they were just being polite, but I'll take it.)

I'd like to think that we aided in the efforts of international diplomacy, that the folks we met have better opinions of Americans than they used to!  And while it probably won't take long for Spanish to regain its position as Griffin's second most familiar language, I now know that French is in there firmly enough that it will come back out after another immersion experience.

Oh, and Griffin also exchanged rubber band bracelets with this boy I made him talk to when I noticed him watching us  from his ground-floor dining room window.

Now I just have to break the news to my husband that we'll have to go to another Francophone country next summer....

Claire's French family in Edinburgh: bilingual boys! (profile)

I'm delighted to introduce you to Claire, a mom from France married to a bilingual Englishman, whose experience raising their sons bilingually led her to create Justine et Sebastien, an educational website with her stories about two bilingual children.

Tell us about your family!
Bonjour, my name is Claire, I was born in France from French parents and raised in Paris. I am a teacher of French language for adults and currently an author in bilingual literature for children.  Phil, my husband, has double nationality: English (by his father) and French (by his mother). He was born and raised in England and although English was the main home language when he grew up, I regard him as bilingual.

We met in Paris and spoke French from day one. We moved to Edinburgh in Scotland and carried on speaking French at home. Phil is an architect.  We have two sons: Ben, age 7½, and Thom, age 5½. They were both born in Edinburgh.  We moved to New York, United States when the boys were 3½ and 1½.We spent almost three years in Brooklyn, NY before moving back to Edinburgh in summer 2011.

Since the children were born we have always been living in an English-spoking country.   We haven’t lived in France since the children were born; we’ve just visited my family and spent some holidays.
The last time we visited France was last summer; we stayed for three weeks.

Who speaks what to your children?
At home I obviously speak French to my sons, and we speak French together with my husband.He speaks English to our children. He can switch easily from one language to another. French is “theoretically” our home language. Sometimes, and I wish I could avoid that, I will speak English and translate into French (or the other way round) to my sons in front of their friends just to make sure everyone is comfortable and not left out of the conversation.

I think it’s a chance and a plus for children to be exposed to a second language. It opens their eyes to a different culture and way of living. I’m willing to think it gives them more opportunities for their future. It can also help them in their social life and give them more confidence.

What approach(es), method(s), or pattern(s), if any, are you using to raise your sons bilingually?
I would say it’s based on common sense; I don’t want to do school at home with my children. I’m exposing them to French culture through books, magazines, and films. When they were younger (from infancy until school age) my husband and I would alternate at story time. One day I would read a story in French, the next day it would be my husband’s turn to read a story in English. We stopped doing that when Ben started kindergarten in New York. At this time, he was learning to read in English by himself, and I wanted to avoid any confusion.

How well do your sons understand, speak, read, and write their two languages?
Both my sons understand the French language perfectly.  My elder son, Ben, replies to me in French very frequently now and can initiate a conversation in French. He goes back to English if there is a word he can’t find. I would say, he speaks to me 50% French, 50% English! (In France, it was 70% French, 30% English, approximately!!) His reading in French is now correct. It’s interesting how there has been a parallel between the experience of learning to read in English and in French, with him not having been in a French classroom. The writing in French is more a phonetic process, though. One of my goals is to focus on reading more French books now that he has become an  efficient reader in English.

Thom, my younger son, remains very shy in French. He understands everything; but replies to me in English most of the time. He has started to answer questions in French, though. He seems to follow a progression similar to his brother who was more or less at the same stage at an identical age. They both won’t speak French to me in front of their friends, as they don’t want to appear as different.

Ben and Thom on the first day of school, August 2012

How have you been able to familiarize your children with French culture?
I’ve been using mainly magazines and books to expose them to French culture. When they express an interest on a specific topic, I try to emphasize its connection to France or share my French point of view. For instance, we had recently a discussion with Ben, who is at the moment interested in Formula1, about the history of French pilots, which led to a more general conversation about the French automotive industry).

What resources and materials have not been useful as you raise your boys bilingually?
French version of books originally written in English language haven’t been useful for them. They prefer to discover something unique or typically French and have no interest whatsoever in a French translation of a story written in English.

What challenges have you faced?
The most challenging task for me on a daily basis is to constantly speak a language different from the one spoken around us.  It’s so easy to give in and speak the dominant language, but I think you have to stick to your mother tongue language all the time if you can when talking to your children.

Another challenge is also to make sure your children will understand the point of speaking another language, the fact that it’s something for their own interest, rather than something to please Mummy or Daddy. My younger son had a strong “Daddy phase” at one point and would ignore all my suggestions to say anything in French. He would worship my husband and therefore talking like Daddy was part of the process. All my efforts were useless during this phase and although I was still speaking French to him at the time, I knew I couldn’t expect him to respond in kind.

Of course, I’ve been using “tricks” to make them speak in French without forcing them. For example, asking questions which offer choices has been working very well with my sons: Est-ce que tu veux le crayon rouge ou le crayon vert”? (“Do you want the red pencil or the blue pencil”) They will repeat the French words I used and give me an answer in French: “le crayon rouge.”

Children should think of learning a second language like playing a game. Parents and teachers should emphasize the fun aspect of acquiring skills in another language, and should teach the language using songs, drama, etc….It shouldn’t be seen as an additional school subject but more as an afterschool hobby in the early years.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children?  What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
When my children began to speak, with me speaking French to them and my husband English, I took it for granted that they would develop their skills in both languages at the same pace and therefore speak both languages at the same level from the beginning, but it didn’t work out this way. It’s not something they did naturally and we had to work together on it.

If I could give a piece of advice, it would be not to hesitate to ask a professional who is not a member of the family to help you. Ben went to a French afterschool program in New York run by a brilliant teacher; this triggered something that allowed him to become more confident with the French language.

What I would do differently now would be to focus and stick to French 100% whatever the context we’re in and obviously to spend more time in France. As a friend of mine always said: ”Immersion in the country is the best thing to speak the language of this country.”

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
The last question I would ask myself would be "What has all this fantastic experience brought me personally?"

Lots of rewards. The observation of this whole process inspired me in the creation of my literary project, “Justine et Sebastien.”

joining the alliance

So I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it took me 14 years of living along Colorado's Front Range to become a member of the Alliance Francaise of Denver.   I mean, I was teaching French for half that time, I've been receiving their weekly e-newsletter all along, and I have even attended workshops for teachers that were held there--but never made the effort to actually join this branch of the worldwide nonprofit organization that promotes French via classes, lectures, cultural activities, and so forth.

So what was it that made me pony up that $45 membership fee, given that it takes me 40 minutes to drive there, thus ensuring that I won't be visiting regularly?

Their library.

Members can borrow novels, educational materials, CDs, movies, even board games--all in French--aaaaand children's books!  Since Griffin is enjoying listening to me read easy chapter books to him now, being able to browse the Alliance Francaise's bibliotheque means I don't have to pay big bucks to order chapter books sight unseen from abroad.

Last week I attended an open house there, anticipating that after that I could stop waffling about whether or not to join--either I'd like what I saw or I'd decide it wasn't worth it.  Here's what I learned:

1.  It fills me with joy to walk into an unfamiliar place in another city and hear someone exclaim "Mademoiselle [Maiden Name]!"  My former students are all over this state.  (And some of them have even kept up with their French after graduating!)

2.  People at the Alliance Francaise are tres impressed to meet an American married to an American who only speaks French to her children.  (Having my adorable Gwyneth on my hip helped, of course.)

Okay, so this my adorable Gwyneth in her father's arms, but you get the idea.

3.  For basically the cost of two magazine subscriptions, I can borrow French materials to read and listen to (and also access other resources from their office, like an iPod loaded with educational podcasts and a television showing TV5, a 24-hour channel in French).

4.  It would not be a good idea to enroll Griffin--or even Gwyneth--in the classes they offer for younger children.  At the sample class I observed, the teachers explained that these classes are designed for anglophone kids who are learning French for the first time and that when a child from a French family attends he invariably gets bored.  This is very good to  know before I made the commitment to haul my kiddos back and forth to downtown Denver once a week!

5a.  On the other hand, the teachers seemed to think that a class for children who are already familiar with French would be welcome, and that if we could meet a minimum enrollment number that the AF teacher would come to Boulder to give the class!

5b.  During that conversation, I also mentioned our French library storytime to the teachers--which really appealed to them.  Perhaps I should start publicizing this program at the AF office and through their newsletter!

5c.  Then I pointed out that as the AF offers activities for francophile adults such as wine tastings, art appreciation lectures, conversation groups, and parties, they could (should?) plan some analogous events for children!  For example, arts and crafts workshops, dance parties, field days, Asterix cartoon viewings....  I would willingly drive down to Denver once a month to have Griffin hang out with French kids and, say, learn to play soccer in French or have a cooking lesson in French.

5d.  The teachers, enthusiastic, then suggested that I contact the AF director and propose classes and workshops like those!  I could even ask the families from French playgroup and storytime to write to him as well....

5e.  It's been a week since the AF open house and I haven't done one darn tootin' thing about it (other than read Oui-Oui au pays des jouets to Griffin!).

5f.  My to-do list (lists) will not get any shorter if I keep adding projects instead of finishing the ones that are already in progress!  (And blogging about them only encourages me to procrastinate and pontificate rather than just do it.  Get off the computer already and go sort Gwyneth's clothes, Sarah!  She's 14 months old and her size-six-month dresses don't cover her tushie anymore.)

profile: Reb's bilingual child--now children!--four years later

One of the (many) joys of creating this blog is the opportunity to revisit families whom I profiled several years ago and to see the linguistic changes that have resulted as their children grow older (and as new children are born, changing the family's language dynamics!).  Without further ado, I'd like to welcome back Reb of Uh Oh Spaghettios, last featured here four years ago when her daughter Suzanne was a wee one.  Now Suzanne's in school and baby Max--now a toddler!--has joined the fun.

(Re)introduce us to your family!
I am American; My husband is French. We live in Lille, France. I’ve lived in France for 15 years. My husband and I have been together for ten years. He’s also lived in Scotland and Denmark so he’s fluent in English. Suzanne is five; Max is almost two (in August 2011).

What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
We are both fluent in French and English (written and spoken). Before the kids were born, we spoke a mix of the two.

How are you exposing your children to both English and French?
At home, we adhere very strictly to OPOL – one parent one language. My husband speaks only French to everyone and I speak only in English to everyone (pets included). I never speak directly to either of my children in French, although they both hear me speaking French to other people. It was a lot of linguistic gymnastics at first, but we got used to it pretty quickly.

Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
It is important that they are able to speak to their French and American families. Language is also a connection with culture, so they need to speak “American” to have that connection with their mother’s culture and to be able to spend time in the US in the future (ie summer camp or high school year abroad, etc.).

How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them? Do they have a preference for what they speak in which contexts? How has their language use evolved as they grow?
Suzanne speaks and understands English as well as any monolingual five-year-old. The only difference is that she uses some French grammar in her English speaking and sometimes uses French expressions translated into English when she speaks to me. When she does speak to me in French, it’s to tell me the exact words someone at school used or because it’s part of an expression that she doesn’t know in English. But, most of the time, she actually does translate the French into perfect English for me. Even when she’s with her friends or at school, she speaks to me in English, which I’m really proud of.  (Sarah adds: As well you should be!)

Max clearly understands English. But he uses more French than his sister did at the same age. He says many words and expressions in English, but his French vocabulary is clearly stronger because of the social context of the French-only nursery school. Most recently I was surprised by how many words he knows in French because I’d never heard him say them before. Sometimes he says things I don’t understand and then realize it must be French; and sometimes he says things in French that I do understand. I repeat it back in English which usually brings him to say it in English as well. When he does say something in French, if I tell him I don’t understand or tell him to “say it like Mommy,” he will usually use the English word. He has just begun stringing nouns together which make micro-sentences mixing both languages. Max uses English for home activities and food (things associated with me) and seems to use more French for common objects and verbs.

Suzanne usually speaks English to her brother. I get the impression that English is more the language inside the house as well as being the mother tongue, which it is called for a real reason I now understand! Having her speak English to her brother is really helpful to me because it not only adds an added English presence in the house, but also creates a little bond and provide me with support.

I think Suzanne feels happy to speak English. A few months ago, Suzanne was really upset because her friends asked her to say something in English and she couldn’t, like her brain was blocked. We explained to her that it was normal and that even if it was hard now, she’d be so happy later to have English. And, happily, the other day she told me that speaking two languages wasn’t hard for her.

How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
When Suzanne was born, I sought out other English speakers where we live. We try to get together once a week so the kids can spend time together. Seeing each other regularly when we all only had one kid was much easier than when we all had our second. I feel it’s important for the kids to know it’s okay and normal to be bilingual. It also gives the parents support. We listen to English radio (BBC), read lots of books in English, and watch mainly English language movies and programmes.

We also have a three-week visit from Grandma every six months, which helps reinforce the language.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to the US very often.

What resources and activities have been most useful to you?
Books have been an amazing resource. Cebeebies radio (BBC for children) has also been great to put on as background noise when we get home.  (Reb also has organized a bilingual storytime at the public library!)

What challenges have you faced as you raise your children bilingually?
I have to say it was much easier raising a bilingual family when there was only one child. Because Suzanne is older and is now social, Max is exposed to more French than Suzanne was at the same age. He hears me speaking more French. Also, I feel that I’m not as aggressive with his English as I was with Suzanne’s. For instance, I distinctly remember ignoring Suzanne when she spoke to me in French whereas for Max, I find myself responding to his French request by reinforcing it in English without making him repeat in English like I did to Suzanne. This reinforces his understanding of English without reinforcing his use of the language. That said, kids are very different and there are many factors that contribute to their learning of both languages. It’s hard not to compare.

Another challenge is self-doubt. I wonder if I’m missing part of my kids’ personality because I don’t know their French selves. They have this whole other part of themselves that I never see. And as a parent, it’s hard to accept that you may not know your kids. But I think that’s true for anything in parenting…or I hope so.

There is also the challenge of transmitting the culture with the language. The American friends I have here try to do “American” things like Thanksgiving, Halloween…and I’ve also gone to Suzanne's school to do some lessons on English and American holidays.

Do you have any advice for us?
The best advice I can give is be consistent and strict. It is essential to stick to a system that works for you. We are really strict with OPOL but have friends who aren’t. And the result is that their kids don’t speak the minority language (my English friend actually says his thing in English and then repeats in French to make sure his kids understand, which defeats the point. The proof is in the pudding….)

Another difficult situation is when we are with family in an all-French situation. At first it was hard, until I created an English universe when we are in such situations. I always make sure there is an English presence no matter where we are so that the kids are never completely detached.

It’s hard to encourage your kids to use the minority language when they have friends in the majority language. But, I tend to speak English to their friends too so they see it’s kind of cool. I encourage Suzanne’s friends to say things in English so that everyone knows it’s okay and so Suzanne won’t feel a stigma.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
To be honest, I don’t think I would do anything differently so far. I would just remind myself that kids are resilient and adaptable.

I did a lot of reading before the kids were born – and based on my own studies of second language acquisition – I felt fairly prepared for the intellectual part of raising kids bilingually, but not for the emotional part. I definitely wasn’t prepared for the emotional tie I had with my native language. It’s hard not to take your child’s language acquisition personally. I think it’s important to understand the various ways to raise your kids bilingually so you can choose the right system for you. Be prepared….!

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
How has it affected my entourage? How has my entourage handled the OPOL situation in the family?

Luckily, both of our families are very supportive of the way we raise the kids. It’s especially helpful when we are with my husband’s family in a very French situation and I speak English, which no one really understands. They could have felt left out or angry, but they don’t. There are some non-English friends who felt alienated and it has caused strife in some of my relationships. But as the kids have start to grow up, I realize how important it is for me to be with bilingual people who understand the importance of my own language and culture.

Dear Readers, isn't it wonderful to hear from a mother who has been successful raising her kids bilingually, despite significant challenges, and who says that she wouldn't have it any different!  Reb, thank you so much for updating us on your family's strategies and progress.

profile: Franck's trilingual family, adding Chinese now!

Meet a new member of Bringing up Baby Bilingual's extended family: Franck from France, his wife Cristina from Spain, and their two children, living in the US.  Franck graciously answered my questions--and he has a question for my readers at the end of this profile!  You can also visit his brand-new blog, Early Languages, where he shares ideas for language teaching in ten-minute chunks.

Please introduce us to your family.

My name is Franck. I was born and raised in Alsace, France. I grew up speaking with my parents and friends Alsatian, a German dialect, and learned French in school.  I have lived in the US for 12 years, where I met Cristina, my wife, who is from the Basque Country in Spain. We both work in large retail and consumer goods companies and live in West Orange, NJ. We are passionate about teaching our kids languages.


Elena, our daughter, is six years old. She speaks French with me, Spanish with my wife, and English at school. She loves drawing, ballet and tennis.  Pablo is three years old and is doing the same, although with a more limited vocabulary. He is a big soccer fan.

We all go as a family to Chinese school on Saturday afternoon to learn Mandarin.

What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?

I am a native French speaker and my wife a native Spanish speaker, which makes it easy for us to teach our languages to our children. When my wife and I met, we did not speak each other’s languages, only English. We took classes for one year so that we could communicate with our respective families.

With our kids around, I speak French to my wife, and she answers in Spanish. We speak in English in front of the children when friends are around.

How are you exposing your children to the other languages?

We strongly believe in making every moment in the day together a language learning opportunity. I usually read at least one ten-minute story a day in French. When I cook, I like to have one of the kids with me to explain the vocabulary in French. When we play soccer, I make an effort to talk a lot about how to play in French. In the car I only put French nursery songs.

Why do you want your children to know more than one language?

We believe that learning is fun and we want them to communicate easily with their grandparents in Spain and France. It will also give them broader opportunities in the future to build relationships with people. And we believe that speaking more than one language will help build a more peaceful world.

How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where French and Spanish are spoken?

Every year we spend one week in France and one week in Spain to see family.

What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?

Useful: a lot of books, audiobooks in French, iPod and iPad. Playing with dolls and playing soccer also makes it fun and interactive. A lot of songs in the car. Watching a cartoon in French on YouTube five minutes per day.

I believe everything can be a useful activity if you weave in some language learning.

What challenges have you faced as you raise your children multilingually?

Finding the time. We both work full time away from home. The first one comes home at 7:30pm at the earliest. The market share of French is limited at home, and I need to find every possible opportunity to squeeze some French in.

Do you have any advice for us--for example, how do you encourage your children to use the minority/second language, or how do you cope with family members who don't speak the child's second language?

Reading princess stories in the second language works the best with my daughter, and also playing together with her dolls or puppets in French. It makes it interactive.

When my in-laws are in town, they do not understand French. So I tell things to Pablo and Elena in French, and translate it right away in Spanish. I basically tell them things in the two languages so that my in-laws do not feel left out.

If any of the adults in the household are non-native speakers of the language they use with the children, please tell us a little about how that works for your family.

My wife and I made the commitment to learn each other’s language. That was the biggest step I believe that helps us raise trilingual children.

We continue maintaining our languages. I read novels in Spanish, my wife in French (mainly on days off or on vacation). Vacation with our families is also very helpful

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?

I am in the process currently. However, I like to read a lot about other parents’ experiences, I learn a lot from it.  Using the iPad, YouTube, a story in French every night, CDs in the car are all ideas I got from friends.

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?

I would like to know if parents have used the second language to learn a third one. I am trying to teach Chinese to my son with a French method. I would like to talk with parents who have tried it and how they did it.

Readers, parents of multilingual children, do you have any suggestions for Franck as he uses his children's second language to help them learn a fourth?

I'd also like to highlight his candid statement that when both parents work long days, it is very hard to give the children lots of input in the minority languages.  When I gave a conference presentation earlier this year about raising children with more than one language, I asked the attendees what they found most challenging about the process; most of them felt similarly constrained.  I know I'm very lucky to be working part-time and spending half my weekdays immersing Griffin in his second language.  Kudos to you single parents and parents who both work full-time who still manage to enrich your children's lives with two or more languages!  And Franck, thank you for sharing your story.

oh Johnny Depp, you dreamy, imperfect francophile, you

Devoted readers of this blog may recall that the celebrity who makes me weak in the knees is Johnny Depp. Here's a brief article about his take on being an adult learner of French.

Profile: French in Mississippi with Tracy's family

Meet Tracy, who shares an inspiring story of how her dedicated efforts to raise her daughter bilingually have resulted in a toddler whose stronger language is French, even in the deep South, even with a parent who is a non-native speaker!

Introduce us to your family--
• Parents'/caretakers'/adults' names, occupations, nationality—Parents are Steve, an American writer and English professor, and Tracy, a SAHM and freelance writer/editor with dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.
• Kids' names, ages, interests—Colette, who will be three in December, loves painting, swimming, animals and anything train-related.
• Where you currently live—Jackson, Mississippi
• Other countries you've lived, if applicable—Canada (Quebec)
• Anything else relevant? I (Tracy) lived in Montreal for a decade then worked at the French Embassy in Washington, DC, for four years.

What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
English (both native speakers) and French (Tracy only—I will only claim near fluency, as my experience raising Colette to be bilingual has really taught me how much French I still have left to learn!)

What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Steve speaks to Colette in English and I speak to her in French. We own many French books, CDs and DVDs, and we have a babysitter who speaks French (as her second language). I have also managed to hire native French-speakers to hang out with us occasionally (I wish I could do that more, but francophones are a rare commodity in this part of the country).

Why do you want your child to know more than one language?
I believe speaking more than one language allows a person to feel comfortable in more places and connect with more people. I believe that bilingualism promotes open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity, two qualities I value highly. I worked so hard to learn French; I love the idea that I can give my daughter the gift of learning the language with ease.

And then there are all the cognitive benefits! There’s a really interesting article about the latest research findings here.

How well does your child understand and speak the different languages?
French is Colette’s default language at this point, and she is considerably stronger in French than in English (although her English isn’t bad). Until recently, she thought everyone spoke French (except maybe her dad), but she has started to address people in English. Her comprehension is excellent in both languages. What astounds me most is that she seems to have developed a fundamental understanding of French grammar that still eludes me sometimes.

How have you been able to expose your child to the cultures where French is spoken?
Only through books, CDs and DVDs at this point. We’re hoping to enroll Colette in a weeklong immersion camp in New Orleans next year and to travel to France with her the following year.

What resources and activities have been most useful to you?
Books, of course, are invaluable.

DVDs are fantastic, since they allow Colette to hear conversational French spoken by native speakers (we use VLC to play Region 2 DVDs). She’s a big fan of a cartoon donkey named Trotro. The CDs of a children’s singer named Alain Schneider are fun, clever and great for expanding her vocabulary (mine too, for that matter). One song, for example, might contain a dozen synonyms for the verb “walk.” I also subscribed Colette to a magazine called “Popi,” which she really likes. She’s thrilled to receive something in the mail every month, and the pamphlet for parents that comes with each issue helps me pick up parenting vocabulary. It’s expensive, but worth the cost. Two books readily available in the U.S. are among Colette’s favorites and have been since she was tiny—Usborne’s First 100 and First 1,000 Words in French. Generally, however, I tend to avoid French-as-a-second-language books in favor of books aimed at native speakers.

Another great free resource is Radio Oustiti, an online radio station that plays good music, airs stories, and offers activities (we just heard a short piece on arctic animals and were able to download a pdf of the animals mentioned). Colette already calls out "Ouistiti!" when I put it on.

In terms of my own French, wordreference.com—especially the forums that allow you to get feedback from native speakers—is a lifesaver.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children?
Immersion is best. Don’t lapse into English—be it for your own comfort or someone else’s.

What challenges have you faced as you raise your child with more than one language?
My greatest challenge is the lack of a French-speaking community and related resources where we live. It is extremely expensive to order books from France or even Canada. I’ve had some luck buying books on eBay, but the selection is limited. I have searched high and low for another French-speaking child, with no luck. Because I have been unable to find a French-speaking community here, I worry that Colette’s French will rapidly fade into the background once she starts preschool next year. I have heard time and again that children start to reject the minority language at a certain point; hopefully this child will be different.

My other big challenge is my own imperfect French; it can be frustrating when you’re trying to explain something to your child and you keep second-guessing yourself about word gender or placement.


Please tell us a little about being a non-native speaker of the language you use with your child.
I always have both a French dictionary and a French-English dictionary close at hand, and my purses and pockets are filled with scraps of paper covered with words and grammar questions to look up. As I said above, wordreference.com is invaluable. If Colette brings me an English-language book, I read it to her in English; my early attempts to translate as I went were too pathetic. And besides, it’s a real joy to share books like The Cat in the Hat with her in my native language.

Do you have any advice for us?
I have been fortunate in that everyone in both my and my husband’s family has been extremely supportive, even though none of them speak French. Early on, I would switch into English in front of other people because I felt it was rude to say things to Colette that they couldn’t understand. Now I don’t worry about that. My approach is to be up front with people about what I’m doing and then just go about my bilingual business. I’ve found that most people are really impressed when they hear a two-year-old speak a language they don’t understand! If you come up against any naysayers, send them the link to the article mentioned above.

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
If anyone knows any French speakers within a reasonable driving distance of Mississippi, please send them my way!

Sarah here--so much of this resonated with me that I'm getting dizzy with all the nodding, from the cost of buying French children's books to the amazing helpfulness of the native speakers on the Wordreference.com forums to her advice not to to worry about what the monolinguals think when they overhear you speaking another language to your kid. Tracy and Colette are proof that you can raise your child bilingually wherever you live, whatever your native language happens to be! Tracy, thank you so much for answering our questions and letting me profile your family here.

and then the 'potamus did what?

Hey Francophones--Have you seen this adorable girl narrating a fairy tale of her own creation? She speaks very clearly (and the video is subtitled).

Griffin wasn't really interested, but I'm just glad to have a coherent short video of a child speaking French to show him!

storytime en français!

Exciting news--the Boulder Public Library is going to start offering a French storytime every other week this fall!

This is just the kick in the fesses that I need to get Griffin and me socializing en français again--we haven't been to the French playgroup since May because my work schedule changed over the summer and then I signed him up for dinosaur class. But now that our Monday mornings are free again, we need to go hear other kids (and their mamans and papas) speaking French.

Part of me still wants to form a French playgroup closer to home--the other is a 25-minute drive--at a more convenient time, like a Friday afternoon, which would be good for me and for parents who work as teachers and for kids who are in school during the day, or a weekend, so working parents who can't attend the Monday morning playgroup could participate. But I never figured out where or when to do it, or whether I wanted to suggest that it be more structured than just "come play and speak French."

But in the meantime, I'll gladly join another group that someone else has taken the trouble to form and is willing to lead! The first meeting is on September 21 (the first and third Tuesday of the month at 10:15 at the main library), and you can be sure that I'll write about it here. Babar, Petit Prince, and T'choupi, here we come!

profile: Susan's multilingual family

Meet language afficionado Susan Herrick Siu and her multilingual family! Thank you very much, Susan, for answering my questions.

Who are the members of your family?

I am a publisher/linguist/writer, a dual Canadian/US citizen, born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada. My husband, Steve Siu , is a doctor of chiropractic. He is a US citizen but was born in Fujian province, China, and raised in Hong Kong and Philadelphia.

Sebastian, four years old: likes riding his bicycle, cooking, traveling, reading (in any language!), building things, analyzing situations (his preschool teachers call him the “Great Problem Solver),” swimming, and gymnastics.

Serena, two years old: loves to swim, draw, go for walks, play in the dirt, sleep, cuddle with mom and dad, give things to people, and meet new friends.

Kai, six months old: likes to play in water, go for walks, stand up, listen to music, grab things, and laugh at his older siblings.

Where do you currently live?

Lewiston, Maine, USA, for the last two and a half years

Where else have you lived?

I grew up in Canada and have lived in Turkey (for close to a year in high school) and South Korea (for close to a year in college), as well as six U.S. states. Steve has lived in China and in Hong Kong (when it wasn’t part of China), as well as five U.S. states.

What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?

I speak fluent (but somewhat rusty) French; intermediate-level Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, and German; and bits and pieces of other languages. I have a background in linguistics and hope to earn my PhD in linguistics when the kids are a little older. I went through the French Immersion program in Canada as a child.

Steve speaks Fujian Chinese (natively), Cantonese (fluently), Mandarin (at an advanced level), Spanish (what he remembers from high school and college courses), and French (a little that he’s picked up from me and the kids so far).

What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?

Mainly French and Mandarin Chinese. I speak French with the children as much as possible, sing to them in French, read lots of French books to them, and play French music and videos for them

The children attend a Mandarin Chinese Saturday school, listen to Chinese music, and watch Chinese DVDs. Steve and I both reinforce Mandarin vocabulary and simple phrases with them and read simple Chinese books to them. When their paternal grandmother comes to visit, she speaks to them mostly in Chinese, although the situation is somewhat complicated by the fact that Mandarin is not her native dialect.

The children have also had some exposure to Spanish through books and videos and to several other languages, including American Sign Language at Sebastian’s preschool.

Why do you want your children to know more than one language?

First of all, languages are part of our family’s heritage. Steve’s family speaks several Chinese dialects (mostly Fujian at home), and his parents speak very little English, so the children need to speak some Chinese in order to communicate with them. My paternal grandmother was a New Orleans French speaker, and I also have some Spanish ancestors.

As well as maintaining those family connections, we want our children to have real access to other cultures, to classics of world literature, and to friends and business associates who are not English speakers. We want our children to be able to be active participants in the world community and to have the capacity to see things from a variety of viewpoints.

We also want them to be able to choose any career that interests them, and many, perhaps most, jobs and careers—science, librarianship, health care, government, sports, journalism, business, education, and other areas—will require knowledge of languages other than English in the future if they don’t already.

How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them? Do they have a preference for what they speak in which contexts? How has their language use evolved as they grow?

Our children are still very young, so they aren’t completely fluent speakers in any language yet. Our oldest, Sebastian, four, is forming quite complex sentences in English now, and I wish I had concentrated more on speaking French with him between the ages of two and three, when he was first starting to use grammar in English. Still, he is using more French every day. He uses many of the words and phrases that I’ve used with him or that we’ve encountered in books, and he understands a lot more than he speaks. He is very enthusiastic about using his French. I wish that I could send him to a French preschool, though, so that he could speak the language regularly with people other than his own family members. He is very shy about speaking it (or English, for that matter) with people that he doesn’t know well, so extra-curricular classes don’t work well for him.

In Chinese, he is limited mostly to single words so far, but he has quite a large vocabulary. He loves to read long and complicated books in French, but prefers simple word books in Chinese. He is very proud when he learns something new in French or Chinese, he doesn’t prefer to have his bedtime stories in English, and he is very aware that the three languages are three separate systems and keeps them separate. Now that he is attending preschool, he has a lot of exposure to English outside the home, so we’re trying to get closer to speaking exclusively in French and Chinese at home. He is doing well in his Chinese Saturday classes now that he is getting used to the people there; he does much better when I don’t go with him, though.

Serena, two, seems to be picking up nearly as many Chinese words as English words. She only says a few French words so far, but I’m hoping that she’ll start using more soon since I speak to her in French much more often than I did with Sebastian at the same age. I think the tones in Chinese make it easier for her to pronounce Chinese words recognizably; she can always get the tones even when she can’t pronounce the rest of the word at all.

How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?

Sebastian loves to go to Chinatown in Boston (or occasionally New York), and will take a Chinese restaurant as second best if we can’t take a longer trip! He also helps to make Chinese dumplings at home. The kids are also exposed to Chinese culture through Steve’s mother’s visits and through books and DVDs. Our dream is to take them to China someday—preferably for a whole year or more—and to make summer visits to our French-speaking neighbor to the North: Quebec! We are friends with a French-Canadian woman and her bilingual children here in Maine, and a friend of mine who is married to a French Canadian and lives in Montreal often writes letters in French to Sebastian.

What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?

Please see my other answers, as well as my blog, LinguistKids.

What challenges have you faced as you raise your children with more than one language?

The biggest challenges are my own level of proficiency in the languages that I’m trying to teach them and the lack of community support/resources. I am a big reader, and recently I’ve been trying to do most of my own reading in French and study Chinese characters more intensively in order to be able to read in Chinese in order to improve my own proficiency in those languages. In the car, when the kids are not with me, I listen to French and Chinese courses and books on CD.

I am planning to start an international school here in Maine and to begin advocating for better foreign-language instruction in the public schools, since our local offerings are really quite pathetic. I would like to network with like-minded parents to share ideas and strength in numbers in improving access to language education and resources in the United States (and internationally).

Do you have any advice for us?

Don’t be shy, and don’t be too attached to any one teaching method. Take every opportunity that comes your way to give your children practice in the language(s) that they are learning. I used to feel silly speaking French with the children in front of my husband because he didn’t understand me, which meant that my children didn’t get to hear any French when he was around. Eventually I got over my embarrassment, and not only did the kids get to hear French more often, but my husband started picking up lots of French phrases, too!

When I got my minivan, I swore that I would never use the TV in the back, but I soon learned that it was a helpful language-teaching tool. We travel a lot, and my children have picked up a lot of French and Chinese from it on long, boring trips on the Interstates. (I still don’t use it on short trips or on scenic routes where they should really be looking out the windows, and even on long trips I try to exhaust my repertoire of songs and games before resorting to the TV.)

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?

Parents can teach languages to their children at home, with help from tutors, books, videos, and so on, but another important part of the parents’ job as second-, third-, and fourth-language educators is activism—getting other parents, schools, communities, and the nation at large involved. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Contact your local and state legislators to tell them that you want more extensive second-language offerings in your local public schools. I was recently talking to one of my state senators, and she claimed that she really does listen when she receives a letter or a phone call from a constituent. If two or three people call her to make the same point or request, she’ll tell her colleagues that the phones are ringing off the hook. So one voice really can make a difference!

• Talk to librarians at your local public library to suggest that they expand their foreign-language collections or purchase specific items that would be helpful to you and other parents in your community.

• Get involved with and support existing language-heritage organizations in your community.

• Build networks of like-minded parents nationally and internationally over the Internet (and through other channels).

• Start a club or language-tutoring exchange or find a teacher to offer lessons or conversation practice to a small group of children. If you homeschool your children, you may be able to form a cooperative lesson-exchange group.

• Even better: start an immersion charter school, private school, or cooperative preschool in your town and then teach others how to do the same. The school doesn’t have to be big or impressive—especially not at the beginning. You could start with one teacher teaching four or five children three days a week (perhaps in someone’s house) at the preschool level, for example.

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?

My publishing company, World’s Edge Books & Publishing, is currently producing a series of books (with accompanying audio CDs) to help parents who are trying to learn languages along with their children. Our first book in this series, Georgian Language for Parents and Children, Book I, was released in June 2010. We will have French, Russian, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese editions coming out later in 2010, and we plan to include other languages within the next few years as well. Please visit us on the Web at LinguistKids and World's Edge Books and Publishing.

I am also in the initial stages of planning an international K-12 school here in Maine. If you would like to get involved, to share your own stories, to make a donation, or to receive more information, visit our new school website, International School of Maine or email me at internationalschoolofmaine@gmail.com.

a French film deppinitely worth watching

My mother, now 70 years old, still holds a candle for Robert Redford. My dad teases her about all the heavy breathing he hears whenever they watch one of his movies. But who can blame her? His all-American good looks crossed with sensitivity, intelligence, and piercing blue eyes have made generations of women melt.

My Robert Redford is Johnny Depp. And my Robert Redford speaks French! (He lives in France with the French mother of his two children, actress-singer Vanessa Paradis.)

But now that I'm occupied with taking care of a two-year-old, I spend a lot less time drooling over Johnny; I haven't even seen most of his recent movies. (Gasp!)

So imagine my surprise this past week, when watching the 2004 French film Happily Ever After (original title: Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants) in bits and pieces during Griffin's naps, it slowly dawns on me that the handsome, intense, slightly nerdy guy in the music store, who doesn't actually say anything in that scene, but reappears at the end of the film as a self-deprecating real estate client (and passionate kisser), is him.

Him! Johnny Depp!

Speaking fluent, perfect, sexy French! Sigh.

This must be my reward for working diligently to keep improving my own language ability (and for seeking out French films that aren't freaky).

an (accidental) vacation from French

Nine days in Wisconsin, a laid-back, friendly, midwestern state that offers myriad lakes, green plants everywhere you look, and lots of beer, dairy products, and deep-fried food. And lots of extended family members--my parents, several aunts and uncles, and cousins and second cousins galore--most of whom were quickly enchanted by Griffin's two-year-old antics.

(No wonder--this is the same boy who made complete strangers smile indulgently at 1:30 am on the train between concourses at Denver International Airport when he exclaimed "Wheeeee!" as the train started, continued with several "chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga choo choo"s, and then remarked with a grin "we going fast!")

Our trip to Green Bay, Three Lakes, and Madison was very relaxing in that lots of people offered to help keep an eye on Griffin. So I read and read, told and listened to stories, played games, exercised, helped cook, made my increasingly-popular white sangria, and even took a four-hour-nap one afternoon.

What I didn't do was make sure Griffin heard lots of French! Outside of our routine, away from most of our books and CDs, with less one-on-one contact with me, and surrounded by anglophones, he spoke more and more and more English, even when I made a point of carefully phrasing my questions and comments to him so that he could reply easily using a lot of the same vocabulary and grammar. (For example, to my "Est-ce que le bateau est grand ou petit?" he would respond, "That's a big boat" instead of "Le bateau est grand" or even simply "grand.")

I'm not worried that we've fallen down a slippery slope and it'll take weeks for him to start doing more French with me--but his increase in English is definitely noticeable, if temporary.

On the other hand, my mother has studied French, and we could see Griffin's surprise when he discovered that Grammy could read him the French books just as well as Maman could! That was fun.

And then in Madison, we visited with three other Francophile friends who have kids just a little younger than Griffin: Arielle, who is bilingual because her mom is French and who is using French with their son (while her husband understands very little, just like mine); and Molly and Bob, who met twenty years ago at French camp (and got married three years ago), who sing French songs to their daughter and speak French to each other when they don't want her to understand.

However, we spent much of our time with them at a very noisy bar-restaurant where the kids had fun dropping pool balls in holes and watching them roll, so I don't think Griffin even realized that most of the other adults were using French here and there.

But maybe in a couple of years we'll meet up again, and their kids and mine will sing French songs together! Now I've just got to work on my cousins....

profile: bilingual with Mamapoekie in Ivory Coast

Meet Mamapoekie, originally from Belgium, who now lives in Ivory Coast with her Belgian husband and their toddler. She is a prolific blogger--check out her musings on being a mama at Authentic Parenting. I'm so pleased that she agreed to be interviewed here, because the majority of the families profiled on my blog have been in North America and Europe.

Mamapoekie is a stay-at-home-mom and her husband is an engineer. She has also lived in Sweden and Cameroon. Both parents are both multilingual: her mother tongue is Dutch, she characterizes her English and French as "very good spoken and written" (and based on her blog, I would push her English far beyond just "very good"!), and she can converse in German and Spanish as well. Her husband's native languages are Dutch and French, his English is very good, and he has also studied some German.

To read more about her impressions of the trilingualism of her home country, click here.

Their daughter (DD) just turned two a couple of days ago!

What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
Currently French and Dutch, we live in a francophone country and the huz speaks French to DD too. I speak Dutch. Our carrier language is Dutch too. She’s a little bit exposed to English (we only watch English spoken TV – which she doesn’t get to do yet, but she hears it all the same - and hear a lot of English music), which we would like to up a notch. After our next holidays, we will be reading to her in English and I also ordered some English lullabies on CD.

Why do you want your child to know more than one language?
That’s a tricky one. I think we always wanted to benefit from our bilingual household situation to also raise our children bilingual. The fact that we now live in a francophone country is just an addition. We’ve gotten a bit more deliberate about it recently as to wanting to add English to the mix, just to benefit from the early language acquiring skills.

How well does your child understand and speak the different languages?
She understands Dutch and French perfectly. She speaks French in whole phrases, but Dutch only in words.

How have you been able to expose your child to the culture(s) where the different languages are spoken?
She has been on holiday in France multiple times and has so far lived in two francophone countries in West Africa. We go on holiday every six months and spend a part of our time with the grandparents in Belgium.

What challenges have you faced as you raise your child with more than one language?
Having lived in a francophone country for close to four years now, surrounded by only French speakers, makes me lose my language. I had set out to only speak French to my daughter, but I feel as if it is impolite to do so around French speakers, so I catch myself speaking more and more French to her. I even start doing it when there’s nobody else around – especially given that she knows I understand, so she will speak to me in whatever language comes first and I tend to respond n the same language, which most often is French, sadly.

Do you have any advice for us?
See previous answer. I find this very hard. We do get to balance it a little by visiting the Dutch speaking grandparents and family twice a year. I think most important is to try as much as possible for the minority language speaker to continue to speak that language, however hard it may be. And to keep correcting them if they address you in the ‘wrong’ language.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I don’t think we’d do anything differently, although we would like to move to a country that’s neither French nor Dutch speaking one day, just to add a little to the language soup.
I think conversation and immersion are the two most important factors in anyone learning a language.

Kids pick up languages really quickly and understand much more than we do, so as long as we don’t fall in the trap of translating it to the kids language it’s fine.

I think any education of a language should be in that language only. Even if the pupil doesn’t understand, the teacher should not translate, rather point it out throuogh gesture and images etc.

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
Just one little thing: A lot of people think/say that language evolves slowlier in a bi- or multilingual child. I beg to differ. I think much depends on how much of the child is spoken to. My daughter, who is a mere 23 months old, has a much larger vocabulary, speaks both languages and speaks in full sentences, when I compare to a monolingual boy she plays with, she is in fact in advance, even while the boy is almost three.

Just talk talk talk and try not to do kiddie talk.

Mamapoekie, thank you for being such a compelling advocate for bilingualism and also for admitting that it is a real challenge for you. I think a lot of families are in the same boat, and it really helps to hear that others struggle with using their mother tongue when living abroad. Can we revisit this profile in a couple of years when DD is older to see what has developed?

And one more question from me: Can you address the fact that West African French is a bit different from Belgian French? Does your daughter notice the differences? And does your daughter hear any African languages as well, the way that two-year-old Julia does in Namibia?

I'm always looking for other bilingual or multilingual families to profile...email me at babybilingual (at) gmail (d0t) com if you'd like to volunteer!

vivent les "pommes frites" with "Monsieur"!

Griffin, Ed (my hubby), and I spent the weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where we stayed in a bunkhouse on a working ranch while cattle lowed outside our bedroom window. Griffin frolicked in the grass, chased the cat, petted a baby kitten, and had a ball in the hot springs pool downtown and also up in the mountains.

We had lunch one day at the Epicurean, a cute and cozy restaurant run by a Frenchman, Marco. I was thrilled that someone besides me was speaking French to Griffin, and Marco seemed delighted when he brought two rubber duckies to Griffin, calling them "canards" (ducks), and Griffin corrected him to say "canetons" (ducklings). (Okay, I'll confess, that delighted me too.) Every time Marco appeared, Griffin would shout "Monsieur!" with joy.

Anyway, when Marco brought Ed's merguez sausages and French fries, he called the latter "pommes frites." All along, I've simply said "frites" for fries, so that's the word that Griffin learned and uses. But Griffin immediately started saying "pommes frites" just like Monsieur!

Griffin and I had fries yesterday, and he called them "pommes frites" then too. I am convinced that this is Marco's influence, a lasting impression made by a real live French person who spoke directly to Griffin about things he loves!

(By the way, the Epicurean's food was exquisite. Ed proclaimed the lobster bisque and the frites among the best he'd ever had, and I really enjoyed the chunky creaminess of the gratin d'artichauts. And Griffin ate his very first escargot! We almost went back for dinner before we left town.)

profile: non-native Spanish and French with Michael's family

Meet Michael Fee and his wife Karen, both Americans, who are learning Spanish and French along with their children! Thank you very much for letting me profile your family.

Introduce us to your family--

• Parents' names, occupations, nationality
o Michael Fee -- Managing Director of Lango, a company which offers French, Spanish, and Mandarin classes for kids ages 18 months to eight years old in 17 states across the US. (For more information about local classes or if you are interested in becoming a licensee and bringing classes to your own neighborhood, visit http://www.langokids.com/.)
o Karen – Associate Development Director for Lighthouse Community Charter School

• Kids' names, ages, interests
o Mack – 10, mountain biking, soccer and travel
o Catie – 8, soccer, music, sewing and languages
o Declan – 4, soccer, t-ball and Spanish

• Where you currently live
o Oakland, California

• Anything else relevant?
o Extensive travel in Europe, Asia and Africa
o Karen and I met doing Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta

What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
• We’re both learning! I started Lango because I had a classically American language-learning experience: started late (high school), wasn’t immersed, and never lived overseas. We want better for our kids! So we’re all learning Spanish, and my daughter and I are also learning French.

What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
• Spanish and French. They’ve gravitated towards these, and most of all, we want them to love learning languages. At times I wish they were learning Mandarin, because I do believe it will become very relevant in the coming years, but I don’t want to push them to the point of discomfort.

Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
• So many reasons! Intellectual, cultural, practical…but most of all, we believe that borders between cultures are eroding, and to get along in this shrinking, “flattening” world, whether in business, politics or travel, we all need to take the step of reaching out and communicating in other languages, not just assuming everyone will speak ours.

How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them?

• We’re getting there. My daughter has shown the greatest proclivity; she retains vocabulary well, and her accents are spot-on. We’re all becoming more comfortable with speaking only in our new languages at dinner and other uncontrived situations.

How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
• Living in California we’re exposed to Spanish all the time. My older son plays on an all-Spanish-speaking soccer team, and my younger son has a preschool teacher who’s from Mexico and speaks Spanish with him (even though it’s not an immersion school). We go to the market in Oakland’s Fruitvale District and hear nothing but Spanish when we buy our vegetables!

What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
• Lango classes, of course: learning new languages from native speakers alongside peers and engaged in dynamic, thematically-based activities.
• “Real-world” activities – incorporating new languages into our everyday life, such as dinner or chores around the house.
• Playing traditionally English games, but speaking Spanish. The kids are comfortable with the games so don’t mind experimenting with the language.
• There’s some good software out there, but we haven’t found that it holds their attention for long. Also, most of it is translation-based, which really confuses our youngest child.

What challenges have you faced as you raise your children with more than one language?
• Mostly it’s not speaking it fluently ourselves! When we’re trying to get through daily life – chores, pickups and drop-offs, meals – it’s a lot easier to speak the language we are all familiar with.

Do you have any advice for us--for example, how do you encourage your children to use the other languages, or how do you cope with family members who don't speak the child's second language?
• Be patient. Don’t force it. Becoming fluent takes years, and any form of early exposure is going to move your child towards bilingualism.
• Try to expose them in a variety of formats – in a class, with family and with friends, through music and media, in everyday life. They shouldn’t see their new language as something that only happens in certain contexts.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
• Start early, and stick with it! There will be times your kids will push back, as with anything new or anything that takes a long time to learn. Without forcing it, just keep at it and it will take hold.

Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
• I love seeing all the new ways to learn languages come onto the market – but nothing replaces communication with real human beings, especially native speakers. Watching their mouths move, seeing their expressions, gauging their responses and not just pre-formulated statements – learning a language needs to be real.

Here, here! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. It sounds like your whole family is invested in learning languages together--how wonderful!